Take the Lead Program Seeks
Nominations by April 12

Photo
by Jim Gipe

Mount
Holyoke is seeking nominations for bright, idealistic high school
sophomores who want to make a
positive difference in the world. Forty
young women will be selected to participate in the sixth annual
Take the Lead, the College's leadership program for high school
students,
which will run September 29–October 2.

Participants will build their leadership skills by attending workshops,
working with MHC student mentors, and listening to successful women
leaders. They will each develop action plans to address an issue
of particular concern to them.

Past programs have inspired significant accomplishments by Take
the Lead participants. Kara Schnabel of Barrington, Rhode Island,
cofounder
of her high school Latin Club and a member of the Brown University
Friends of Egyptology and the Archaeological Institute of America,
devised a plan at the 2003 Take the Lead conference to create an
armchair travel club at her school. Last March at her school in
Wilmington, Delaware, Katie Ball organized the first ACT (Active
and Compassionate
Teens) Conference for Social Justice. Ball and her committee of
20 students received two grants, recruited two noted speakers,
and hosted
20 workshops during the day. Approximately 100 students attended
the conference from 15 schools. In Charleston, South Carolina,
Anne Rhett started an after-school arts program for youth. While
working
on her project, Anne earned two grants, tapped into other teen
activists online, and published two articles in Charleston’s
daily newspaper. She also recruited 25 volunteers and held approximately
15 art classes
for children of various ages.

Members
of the MHC community are invited to nominate up to three women
who are now in their sophomore year of high school. President
Joanne V. Creighton will write a letter of congratulations
to each
nominee and invite her to apply. The MHC community received
Take the Lead brochures and nomination forms earlier this month.
The completed
forms should be returned via campus mail by April 12. Nominations
can also be submitted electronically at www.mtholyoke.edu/go/takethelead.